Legal Exemptions for Religious Feelings

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Vallier ◽  
Michael Weber
Keyword(s):  
Government Officials ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Basic Rights

This essay examines official forms of governmental inquiry into the religious feelings of Muslim citizens. It identifies a series of normative problems with currently available investigative practices in that regard. Government can push too far in its investigations of religious practitioners’ feelings, and various forms of investigation, currently allowed under liberal-democratic legal codes, appear to permit violations of citizens’ basic rights. The essay offers grounds for restructuring conditions under which government officials may permissibly question Muslims about their emotions and sentiments; for rethinking how far government functionaries may proceed in their examinations; and supporting a more general right of citizens to refuse to disclose their feelings to government officials, when questioned about them.

Basic Rights

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Schupmann
Keyword(s):  
Federal State ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Basic Liberty ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Basic Rights ◽  
Equal Chance ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Democratic Constitution

Chapter 6 analyzes how Schmitt applied his state and constitutional theory to Weimar. It shows Schmitt theorized a “counter-constitution” that entrenched liberal basic rights absolutely against democratic amendment procedures. It challenges the belief that Schmitt was a “relentlessly” illiberal thinker. This chapter analyzes how Schmitt applied his thought to Weimar in opposition to the prevailing positivist interpretation of the constitution, which held that it committed above all to democratic equal chance. Schmitt argued that the “absolute” commitments of a liberal democratic constitution like Weimar’s could only be coherently located in basic liberty rights. This chapter also analyzes the institutions and mechanisms Schmitt theorized to guarantee these basic liberty rights, especially against democratic subversion. They include entrenchment of basic constitutional commitments, party bans, a “positive” vote of no confidence, and a stronger federal state. It concludes by analyzing Schmitt’s reflections on the improvements the Bonn Grundgesetz made to the Weimar Constitution.

THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF LIBERAL RIGHTS IN A DIVERSE WORLD

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hun Chung
Keyword(s):  
Social Choice ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Basic Rights ◽  
Diverse World ◽  
Liberal Rights ◽  
Liberal Democratic Society ◽  
Specific Assignment ◽  
New Framework ◽  
Made In

Abstract:A defining characteristic of a liberal democratic society is the assignment of basic rights and liberties that protect each person's private sphere. Hence, social choice made in a liberal democratic society must at the very least be consistent with the exercise of each person's basic rights. However, even when everybody agrees to this basic principle, there could still remain irreconcilable social conflict and disagreement when it comes to the specific assignment of basic rights. This is especially so in a pluralistic society where there is a clash among radically different and incompatible world views. Philosophers have now started to focus on this issue, which now goes by the name 'perspectival diversity'. This paper extends the basic social choice theoretic framework of liberal rights by enlarging the domain to includeindividual perspectivesalongside individual preferences. In this new framework, different individuals are able toseeorperceivethe same social alternative differently based on their own unique perspectives. The formal results of the paper imply that generating a viable social choice that is consistent with the assignment of basic rights can quickly break down once we start to increase the level of perspectival diversity in society.

Another War; Another Peace

2021 ◽  
pp. 182-206
Author(s):  
Clive Emsley
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Mixed System ◽  
Deep South ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Police Responses ◽  
American Police ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

This chapter describes how, during the Second World War and immediately afterwards, many British, certainly government officials and senior police officers, maintained the belief that their police were superior to others. Attempts were made by the British and American allies to develop forms of liberal-democratic police in their defeated enemies, but these were not always particularly successfully. Initially, a mixed system of British and American police worked well in liberated Europe, but there were potential divisions. Racial divisions could be found among the police in many states, as the old European empires came to an end. In some instances, American police officers may have been critical of the European empires; but racial prejudice remained present among many American communities and their police. This was especially apparent among American cops in states of the Deep South, where the residue of black slavery remained. Ultimately, decolonization, the cold war, and a determination to shore up and assist some very dubious regimes ensured a difference between the use of police overseas and their use at home, while protest movements often linked with international concerns prompted similar police responses in different countries.

Kämpfe um Bergbau und die Möglichkeiten demokratischer Transformation

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (189) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dietz
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Mining Project ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Relationship

The article explores the political effects of popular consultations as a means of direct democracy in struggles over mining. Building on concepts from participatory and materialist democracy theory, it shows the transformative potentials of processes of direct democracy towards democratization and emancipation under, and beyond, capitalist and liberal democratic conditions. Empirically the analysis is based on a case study on the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia. The analysis reveals that although processes of direct democracy in conflicts over mining cannot transform existing class inequalities and social power relations fundamentally, they can nevertheless alter elements thereof. These are for example the relationship between local and national governments, changes of the political agenda of mining and the opening of new spaces for political participation, where previously there were none. It is here where it’s emancipatory potential can be found.

Orthodox arrangement of the Pochaiv Lavra in the second third of the XIX century.

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-41
Author(s):  
Ella Volodymyrivna Bystrytska
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Political Motivation ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Xix Century

Abstract: A series of imperial decrees of the 1820s ordering the establishment of a Greco-Uniate Theological Collegium and appropriate consistories contributed to the spread of the autocratic synodal system of government and the establishment of control over Greek Uniate church institutions in the annexed territories of Right-Bank Ukraine. As a result, the Greco-Uniate Church was put on hold in favor of the government's favorable grounds for the rapid localization of its activities. Basilian accusations of supporting the Polish November Uprising of 1830-1831 made it possible to liquidate the OSBM and most monasteries. The transfer of the Pochaiv Monastery to the ownership of the Orthodox clergy in 1831 was a milestone in the liquidation of the Greco-Uniate Church and the establishment of a Russian-style Orthodox mono-confessionalism. On the basis of archival documents, the political motivation of the emperor's decree to confiscate the Pochayiv Monastery from the Basilians with all its property and capital was confirmed. The transfer to the category of monasteries of the 1st class and the granting of the status of a lavra indicated its special role in strengthening the position of the autocracy in the western region of the Russian Empire. The orders of the Holy Synod outline the key tasks of ensuring the viability of the Lavra as an Orthodox religious center: the introduction of continuous worship, strengthening the personal composition of the population, delimitation of spiritual responsibilities, clarifying the affiliation of the printing house. However, maintaining the rhythm of worship and financial and economic activities established by the Basilians proved to be a difficult task, the solution of which required ten years of hard work. In order to make quick changes in the monastery, decisions were made by the emperor and senior government officials, and government agencies were involved at the local level, which required the coordination of actions of all parties to the process.

Policy perspectives of Turkey towards return migration: From permissive indifference to selective difference

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Özge Bilgili ◽  
Melissa Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Return Migration ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Highly Skilled ◽  
Development Initiatives ◽  
Past Experiences

This is the first paper of its kind to look at policy perspectives on return migration in Turkey, based on an analysis of official documents and a series of interviews with Turkish authorities, government officials and academics. We identify several perspectives which range from the absence of a specific legislation to control return migration, to the concrete attempts to regulate the return of a selected group of migrants, namely the highly skilled. Subsequently, we show that these perspectives are built on a series of sometimes paradoxical arguments regarding economic development, past experiences about development initiatives and the country’s international objectives.

An Empirical Study of Human Trafficking Law in Cameroon: Victims Rarely Seek Justice and Traffickers Are Not Held Liable

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-441
Author(s):  
Monique Aziza
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
West Region ◽  
Arduous Task ◽  
Adults And Children

This article argues that the number of unprosecuted human traffickers is growing in Cameroon. This article aims to examine Cameroonian government officials, prosecutors and judiciary attitudes to human trafficking laws, which endanger Cameroonians. This article is an empirical study of victims of human trafficking. It takes an objective look at Cameroon's anti-trafficking law that criminalises the trafficking of adults and children. It is evident that societal discrimination towards the North West region, lack of opportunities for free education or to a trade post-primary school and the lack of enforcement of the anti-trafficking law are making combating human trafficking an arduous task.

Liberal Internationalism from George W. Bush to Barack Obama

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Democratic Peace ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Global War On Terrorism ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Global War

This chapter examines the United States' liberal democratic internationalism from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. It first considers the Bush administration's self-ordained mission to win the “global war on terrorism” by reconstructing the Middle East and Afghanistan before discussing the two time-honored notions of Wilsonianism espoused by Democrats to make sure that the United States remained the leader in world affairs: multilateralism and nation-building. It then explores the liberal agenda under Obama, whose first months in office seemed to herald a break with neoliberalism, and his apparent disinterest in the rhetoric of democratic peace theory, along with his discourse on the subject of an American “responsibility to protect” through the promotion of democracy abroad. The chapter also analyzes the Obama administration's economic globalization and concludes by comparing the liberal internationalism of Bush and Obama.

Reagan ’s Democratic Revolution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
World Order ◽  
Current Strength ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Free Markets ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Democratic Revolution ◽  
Constructive Engagement

This chapter examines Ronald Reagan's commitment to the tenets of liberal democratic internationalism, and in particular his promotion of a global “democratic revolution” characterized by an apparent contradiction between activism and moderation in American foreign policy. It begins with a discussion of the Reagan administration's strategy that called for a a minimal effort on its part to realize its vision of a world order dominated by democratic governments, with emphasis on three key operational programs: “constructive engagement”; the push for antistatist, free markets abroad; and the Reagan Doctrine. The chapter then considers the role played by the Reagan administration's policies to the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the succeeding prestige of democratic governance worldwide. It argues that the American role in the spread of democracy worldwide in the twentieth century was a necessary, but not sufficient, cause for the current strength of democratic government.

The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Laurence
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Integration Problems ◽  
Muslim Minorities

This book traces how governments across Western Europe have responded to the growing presence of Muslim immigrants in their countries over the past fifty years. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews with government officials and religious leaders in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Turkey, the book challenges the widespread notion that Europe's Muslim minorities represent a threat to liberal democracy. The book documents how European governments in the 1970s and 1980s excluded Islam from domestic institutions, instead inviting foreign powers like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Turkey to oversee the practice of Islam among immigrants in European host societies. But since the 1990s, amid rising integration problems and fears about terrorism, governments have aggressively stepped up efforts to reach out to their Muslim communities and incorporate them into the institutional, political, and cultural fabrics of European democracy. The book places these efforts—particularly the government-led creation of Islamic councils—within a broader theoretical context and gleans insights from government interactions with groups such as trade unions and Jewish communities at previous critical junctures in European state-building. By examining how state–mosque relations in Europe are linked to the ongoing struggle for religious and political authority in the Muslim-majority world, the book sheds light on the geopolitical implications of a religious minority's transition from outsiders to citizens. This book offers a much-needed reassessment that foresees the continuing integration of Muslims into European civil society and politics in the coming decades.

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